AGILULF OF COLOGNE, ST.

Bishop; d. 750 or 751. He became bishop of Cologne after 745–746, supported the reforms of St. Boniface, and attended the Frankish Synod in 747. The cult of St. Agilulf (Agilulph) did not flourish until after July 9, 1062, when Archbishop anno ii of Cologne translated the relics of St. Agilulf from the Abbey of Malmédy to St. Maria ad Gradus in Cologne, where they remained until their removal to the cathedral in 1846. According to the Passio sancti Agilolfi, composed probably before 1062, this Agilulf was a simple monk, martyred by the Neustrians at Amblève (Amel) on March 31, 716. Later sources wrongly identified him with Bishop Agilulf. Thus, c. 1160, Dietrich of Deutz added the title "martyr" to the entry Agilolfus episcopus in the list of bishops of Cologne. According to another account, the Miracula sancti Quirini, written at Malmédy late in the eleventh century, Agilulf was a Benedictine monk at the Abbey of Stavelot under Abbot Anglinus, whom he succeeded, apparently in 745, remaining abbot even after he became bishop of Cologne. This, too, is plainly inaccurate, since Anglinus was certainly abbot as late as 751.

Feast: July 9.

Bibliography: w. neuss, ed., Geschichte des Erzbistums Köln, v.1. Das Bistum Köln von den Anfängen bis zum Ende des 12. Jahrhunderts (Cologne 1964) 134–135. w. levison, "Bischof Agilolf von Köln und seine Passio, " Annalen des hist. Vereins für den Niederrhein 115 (1929) 76–97; repr. in w. levison, Aus rheinischer und fränkischer Frühzeit. Ausgewählte Aufsätze (Düsseldorf 1948) 76–95. a. steffens, Der heilige Agilolfus (Cologne 1893). Monumenta Germaniae Historica: Scriptores (Berlin 1826–) 11:438–439, 482; 13:293. Acta Sanctorum July 2:714–726.

[m. f. mccarthy]